The rich rural scenery of North Fife, Scotland, provides variety from the historic city of St Andrews and the quaint harbours of the East Neuk of Fife. A Royal Palace in Falkland, a Folk Museum in Ceres, a National Trust Mansion House near Cupar, Balmerino Abbey, Lindores Abbey, Newburgh, Dunbog, Glenduckie, Creich, Birkhill, Ballinbreich, Abdie, Upper Flisk and more in beautiful North East Fife. Also the occasional wander.
In Celebration of Harvey Holton Scots Poet I first met Harvey when I moved to North Fife in 1979, we became good friends and enjoyed many convivial, sometimes merry, sometimes deeply conversational times over the years. Latterly we were to collaborate in creative projects, Harvey's poetry, my pictures, alas this was not to be. Not everything in life turns out. Like many creative people his skills and production will be only now fully recognised, albeit posthumously.
Harvey Holton at home a few years past.
Twin brother Brian Holton and Yang Lian Chinese Poet remember Harvey at Stanza, Scotland's International Poetry Festival, St Andrews. Entitled "Past and Present"
On Sunday, The Vernal Equinox, a tree planting ceremony took place in the grounds of Birkhill, North Fife in memory of Harvey Holton, poet in Scots, a fitting memorial given the Celtic significance of The Hazel Tree, as described below.
A demonstration of what to do.
Work in progress.
Anne and Brian holton planting one of the Hazel trees.
One look at the hazel tree and it's easy to see why the Celtic meaning of the hazel tree deals with creativity, and why the druids held it in such high regard amongst the Ogham ranks.
The hazel's unusual branch formations make it a delight to ponder, and was often used for inspiration in art, as well as poetry.
The bards, ovates and druids of the Celtic day would intently observe its crazy curly-Q branches. Doing this would lead them into other worlds of delightful fantasy. Much the same way our modern imaginations can be captured by a good movie, the creative Celts were artistically motivated by the seemingly random and wild contortions of the hazel.
A more commonly known fact is that the hazel is considered a container of ancient knowledge. Ingestion of the hazel nuts is proposed to induce visions, heightened awareness and lead to epiphanies. Indeed, the legend of Fionn Mac Cumhail tells of his gaining the wisdom of the universe by simply coming in contact with the essence of the hazel nut.
He did this through the salmon, which was known to eat the hazel nuts that dropped around a sacred pond encircled by nine hazel trees. It was fabled that from their diet of the nuts, the salmon too were keys to infinite knowledge. Fionn burned his finger while preparing a soup of these very salmon. Instinctively, Fionn thrust is finger in his mouth to soothe the burn and by this slight contact he became enlightened.
Interestingly, in modern times the hazel nut has proven itself to be a brain food. Pound for pound the hazel nut have double the protein, and good fats than eggs, making them natural nourishment for brain function.
When you are creatively stuck, or your intellectual growth seems stagnate, call upon the energy of the hazel tree. Better yet, eat a few hazelnuts, or make a necklace from the nuts. Often such necklaces were worn for protection as well as to illicit visions. Likewise, hazelnuts were (still are) eaten just before engaging in divinatory, foretelling or meditative practices.
Post script: Pick your hazelnuts after they have fallen from the tree. It is considered bad form to pick them unripe off the branches.
In Memory of Harvey Holton Scots Poet. Harvey's view from Corbbie Hill.
In this house at Corbie Hill North Fife ( hill of the crows ) lives Harvey Holton one of Scotlands better poets. Harvey writes mainly in Scots and next week you can meet him and maybe hear a poem.
This work is suitable as an introductory course or for those interested in re-acquainting themselves with the language of childhood and grandparents. The book assumes no prior knowledge on the reader's part. Starting from the most basic vocabulary and constructions, the reader is guided step-by-step through Scots vocabulary and the subtleties of grammar and idiom that distinguish Scots from English. An accompanying audio recording conveys the authentic pronunciation, especially important to readers from outside Scotland. The course is based on General Scots with a slight emphasis on the North-East and contains an introduction, 25 graded lessons, an English-to-Scots vocabulary list, and appendices with verb tables and similar material. Each lesson itself contains dialogues, vocabulary, grammatical explanations, exercises, and - most importantly - a section giving background information about life in Scotland, for the reader to understand the material in its cultural context. This is a fun and interesting insight into Scottish culture. By the end of the course participants should be able to read books and poems in Scots, take part in conversation, and enjoy interacting with Scots speakers. Buy Here. Scots Poet Harvey Holton reads from his publication Finn at his home in North Fife. Harvey can be contacted, email:- corbiehill@tiscali.co.uk
Today more than 200 friends and relatives gathered at Dundee Crematorium to witness Harvey Holton's last physical journey. He much remains in mind and will do so through his poetry, yesterday his obituary was published in The Scotsman fittingly on Robert Burns Day. Both much loved and liked, convivial and a joy.
Harvey's arrival.
During the ceremony poems were read by Kevin Isherwood, Graeme Russell and Cello playing by Ron Shaw.
The empty chair. Harvey, there in mind. Today I visited Anne Holton at Corbiehill to commiserate about Harvey, there were many callers and preparations for the funeral taking place. Sudden death of anyone, particularly when close is a salutary lesson, reminding us of being in the same queue but not knowing where.
I first came across Yang Lian at Stanza, Scotland's International Poetry Festival where he reminisced about his relationship with Harvey Holton, a mutual friend, Poet in Scots who died early last year. His energy and exuberance is evident in the video of the occasion.
Yang Lian Lee Valley Poems. A review. Yang Lian is one of the most astonishing poets I've read for years. He has a westernist, modernist sensibility allied with an ancient Chinese, almost shamanistic one. He can both excite and frighten you - like MacDiarmid meets Rilke with Samurai sword drawn! --W.N. Herbert, Scotsman
Yang Lian distinguishes himself in representing the pain of life caught in between historic eras - a new version of an old issue for world literature as well as Chinese literature is proposed: how to continue writing, relying on individual rather than enforced communal inspiration. --Allen Ginsberg
It wouldn't surprise me if he became a future Nobel Laureate. His style is one of extraordinary grandeur and ambition - a monumental drive, a sensuous strength and intellectual clarity. --David Morley, Stand
Before and since his enforced exile, Yang Lian has been one of the most innovative and influential poets in China. Widely hailed in America and Europe as a highly individual voice in world literature, he has been translated into many languages. "Lee Valley Poems" is his first book to be wholly conceived and written in London, once his place of exile and now his permanent home. It includes an extended sequence, "What Water Confirms", translated by Brian Holton and Agnes Hung-Chong Chan, and a suite of shorter poems translated by several poets, most of these working with Yang Lian: Polly Clark, Antony Dunn, Jacob Edmond, W.N. Herbert, Pascale Petit, Fiona Sampson and Arthur Sze. The book's preface, A Wild Goose Speaks to me, takes as its springboard Yang Lian's comment 'There is no international, only different locals'. With this perspective, the Lee Valley of his first London poems becomes the international inside the local: the poet may travel far but never really leaves the ground of his own inner self, and the value and joy of poetry is seen as fishing in the deep sea of existence. This title is available in a bilingual Chinese-English edition.
Today I joined my friend Harvey Holton to explore a project called Joint Vision. The product will be Exhibitions and publications of mixed media and hopefully intergrated into 1mile2, a three year global arts project. Anyway, Harvey had a copy of the book below. I opened at random to one page headed, "Mean". It said, He could even peel an orange in his pocket, it reminded me of a Alexander Stevenson.
The Wee Book of Calvin. This a true original and everyone in your family should have one beside their bedside candle (before accidently burning the cottage down).We need Bill Duncan and I hope he will take this book and preach with it far and wide and beyond the wild borders of Carnoustie.
Harvey Holton, Scottish Poet lives in North Fife just 3+ miles as the corbie flies from my home at Flisk. Harvey writes in Scots which at first seems a wee bit odd but as was explained to me, if said as read then the sense becomes self evident.
Sirens
Hear the beauty o sang owre wave wash Puuin the soul safe through the seas Tae pound oan rock raised bi wuid splinter Fer frae saft safely leavin ainly daiths ease Sing noo the sirens sair in city streets Sigh o the times quick passed pavements pass Blue licht flashin fower wheels breengein Noo life savers wurkin haurd daith tae ootclass Blind reactions workin hidein still an unner class Bomb blasts in a city street in a first world Bluid an ile dreep fre weapon stock haun held Bluids frae the same sailors lug an hert The ain sang the cauld sang a cauld weld O the contracts shiftin bield tae the streets sang Winde the wailin machine mak the noise noo Attentions fur tae attract the lug tae abstract Tae whaur the bunkers are the safe bits an that’s true Listen listen the sang is singin fur you
At the Homecoming event at The National Museum of Scotland Matthew Fitt presented an entertaining discourse on the movement to encourage the knowledge and happy use of Scots. Rabbie Burns wrote in Scots, whose birthday it was. Imagine, the time honoured National Poet whose language is less and less understood. I was born in England, have lived in Scotland for 30 years and for all of that time have a local friend who writes poetry in Scots. You can see and hear Harvey Holton who has always explained that to say it as you see it, is all, then you've got it.
'Fair fa yer honest sonsie face Great chieftain o the pudding race!'To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland's National Bard, Itchy Coo is proud to publish this lift-the-flap board book in the format of the hugely successful KATIE series.There will be many publications in 2009 to mark Burns' 250th birthday, but Rabbie's Rhymes is unique in bringing the best-loved lines of the poet to the very youngest readers. Children will love lifting the flaps to find out: where the wee sleekit cowerin timorous moose is hiding; what the haggis is wearing on his head; and what happens to the Highlander's kilt when the wind blows. A simple, funny, colourful introduction to Burns, Rabbie's Rhymes will entertain the bairns and encourage parents and teachers not only to recite the lines from the poems but perhaps also to sing the tunes to songs like Ca the Yowes and Ye Banks and Braes, A Red, Red Rose and, as a grand finale, Auld Lang Syne. Illustrated by award-winning Karen Sutherland, Rabbie's Rhymes will be one of the highlights of the 2009 Burns celebrations.
About the Author James Robertson and Matthew Fitt have written numerous books together in Scots, including Blethertoun Braes, King o the Midden, A Wee Book of Fairy Tales and A Moose in the Hoose. Karen Sutherland is an award-winning artist who is also the illustrator of Animal ABC, A Moose in the Hoose and Eck the Bee.Rabbie's Rhymes: Robert Burns for Wee Folk (Katie)
We called in to our local library to browse. My daughter decided to borrow this book. What a laugh we have had in reading to each other.
Geordie's Mingin Medicine (Itchy Coo) [Paperback] A Translation into Scots of Roald Dahl's much loved "George's Marvellous Medicine" by Matthew Fitt.
Matthew Fitt is a novelist, poet and translator. Matthew was born in Dundee in 1968.
"I like to write about a wide range of subjects and to switch between poetry and prose. I suppose the strongest theme in my writing is to make language exciting and fresh. I've written so far about floods, hurricanes, virtual polis, wee pigs, coos on loos, muckle monsters, Italian cafes, medieval merchants, pawkie provosts, upside doon puggies, crabbit grannies and a bing of the other stuff. Histories, translations, anthologies, education packs, radio scripts, short stories and poetry films are all things I've tried my hand at and have enjoyed doing."
Matthew's translation is a gem and enhances the story particularly if you wish to ken the rich Scots language. I have no hesitation in recommending it for an entertaining children's book. A close friend Harvey Holton said "just say it as you read it" then you've got it.
RRP: £4.99 Price: £4.19 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. A great buy for a Christmas pressie. Geordie's Mingin Medicine (Itchy Coo)
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